(Adnkronos) – A federal judge in the United States has again blocked the Trump Administration’s measure to exclude new foreign students from Harvard University. Allison Burroughs accepted the appeal of the Ivy League university, presented to the Massachusetts district court a few hours earlier, and issued a restraining order blocking the government’s plan. On Wednesday, Donald Trump signed an order to immediately suspend, for six months, international visas granted to students, citing national security concerns.
The university’s ability to allow foreign students into the country to attend various programs until the 16th of this month, when a new hearing has been scheduled, has thus been restored, the Harvard newspaper, Crimson, reported. Harvard’s appeal denounces the Trump Administration’s attempt to pressure the institution with illegal retaliatory measures.
“With a stroke of a pen, the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security and the President tried to erase a quarter of Harvard’s student body, the international students who contribute significantly to the University and its mission and to the country. Without its international students, Harvard is not Harvard,” the appeal reads. The same judge had already issued a first injunction at the end of May, in response to a first appeal by Harvard following a measure by the Administration to withdraw the Sevis certification granted to the university (Student and Exchange Visitor), the system that allows foreign students to study in the United States.
